Chapter 4-The River Remembers
625 Words
Elen did not realize she was following the sound of water until the trees began to thin.
Not open.
Never open.
But less suffocating.
Less trapping.
The roots beneath her feet twisted wider here, breaking through the earth like old bones, and the air carried the cold, damp scent of the river long before she saw it.
She should have turned away.
Every story said the same thing.
Never follow water in the old forest.
Rivers remember.
And memory, in places like this, was rarely kind.
But Kael’s words still echoed inside her.
There was someone there.
I thought it was you.
So she kept walking.
The lantern flame burned low now, trembling in the dark as though it wanted to flee before she did.
Ahead, the trees gave way to black water.
The river moved slowly here.
Too slowly.
Its surface was smooth as glass, untouched by rain, untouched by wind, reflecting the trees so perfectly it looked less like water and more like another world waiting beneath it.
Elen stopped at the bank.
Her breath shallow.
Careful.
This was wrong.
The river near the village ran wild and brown with spring rain, loud enough to drown thought.
This river was eerily silent.
Watching.
Waiting.
She looked down at Kael.
His face had gone strangely peaceful in sleep, the fever-soft tension easing from his brow.
As though being here soothed him.
That frightened Elen more than anything.
Mud clung to the hem of her dress as she stepped closer.
At the edge of the water, something pale caught the lantern light.
A child’s footprint.
Small.
Bare.
Pressed into the mud.
Fresh.
Elen’s stomach turned.
Another step.
Another.
Then another.
One after the other.
Leading straight into the river.
None leading back.
Her throat tightened.
“No.”
The word came out thin.
Quiet.
Useless.
She took a shaking breath—
and followed them anyway.
At the water’s edge, the final print disappeared beneath the inky black surface.
Kael stirred in her arms.
His lips trembled.
“Don’t.”
Elen froze.
His eyes never opened.
Still sleeping.
Still somewhere far beyond her reach.
But his voice had changed again.
Not quite Kael.
Not quite anything human.
The river rippled.
Just once.
No wind.
No rain.
Just a slow circle spreading across the surface.
Then another.
And another.
As though something beneath the water had begun to rise.
Elen stepped back.
The lantern shook violently in her hand.
From the center of the river, a figure stood beneath the surface.
Not floating.
Standing.
Still.
Unmoving.
Watching her through the dark water.
Her own face looked back at her.
Same eyes.
Same mouth.
Same shape—
except for the smile.
Elen had never smiled like that.
Too wide.
Too knowing.
Too—
hungry.
Her blood turned to ice in her veins.
The thing beneath the water lifted one pale hand—
and pressed it slowly against the underside of the river’s surface.
Like glass.
Like it was waiting for permission.
Kael whimpered softly.
The reflection smiled wider.
And in a voice that sounded like her own, dragged through deep water, it said—
“You took longer than I expected.”
Kael’s body went rigid in her arms.
His fingers dug into her cloak—harder than they should have been able to.
“Not here,” he whispered.
The voice was not entirely his.
The reflection’s smile widened.
And then—
the water went black.
Not dark.
Gone.
The reflection vanished. The surface stilled as though nothing had ever been there.
But the forest shifted.
Not around her—
ahead of her.
Elen didn’t understand how she knew.
But she did.
She wasn’t meant to stay at the river.
She was meant to go deeper.
Farther.
- Writer
